The European Investment Bank (EIB) Climate Survey 2021-2022 aims to inform the broader debate on citizens’ attitudes and expectations in terms of climate action in the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and China. The first release of the 2021-2022 survey explores people’s views on climate change in a rapidly changing world. The results from this release focus on how people perceive climate change and the actions they expect their country to take to combat it:
- In all countries surveyed, climate change is seen as the biggest challenge for humanity in the 21st century.
- The majority of EU citizens (58%) and Britons (55%) believe that their country will fail to drastically reduce its carbon emissions, as pledged in the Paris Agreement.
- 75% of EU citizens, 69% of Britons and 59% of Americans believe they are more concerned about the climate emergency than their governments.
- The majority of EU citizens (51%) say government inactivity is why the climate crisis is so difficult to solve.
- 70% of EU citizens and 73% of Britons are in favour of strict government measures imposing changes on people’s behaviour to fight climate change.
This is the first survey in a series of three.